Lines of Communication
by BettyBackInTheDay
Summary: When Pepper finds herself in a dangerous situation, her hero takes a most unusual form. A little Halloween treat for everyone. All Hail Marvel! (AvLand Challenge #16) Happy Halloween!


**A/N:** A little Halloween treat for everyone. All Hail Marvel! (AvLand Challenge #16) Happy Halloween!

Lines of Communication

A few months after the Battle of New York, Pepper Potts sat at her keyboard sleepily typing fiscal year-end reports. The sky grew dark outside her west coast CEO office at Stark Industries. Tony was in New York overseeing some changes to The Tower. She couldn't bring herself to refer to her 12% of the building as Avengers Tower, so she stuck with the generic branding. It was fall and the famous California sun didn't shine long into the evening anymore. That made it even more difficult to keep her focus on accounting.

Suddenly, her monitor went blank. "Damn it," she whispered as she pushed her chair away from the desk. As she made it half way around her desk, the lights went out. She froze in place.

A deep, cleansing breath allowed her to get her bearings in the pitch black and talk herself out of panicking. "Just breathe and sit back down," she reasoned as she shuffled back to her chair and fumbled around for her purse. "Just call maintenance and tell them what's going on. And then call IT and make sure they can get my freakin' report back up."

She felt her cell phone and brought it out of the bag. She pressed the power button. No response. She pressed it again. No response. Her breathing became fast and heavy. She was losing control.

She continued attempting to get the cell phone to come to life as she fumbled for her desk phone. No dial tone. No power. No communication.

She put the phones down and leaned back in her chair. "Get a grip, Potts. You know your way around this place. Just get out to the parking lot. That's all. Just start walking."

In the eerie silence of the vacant building, she began to stand.

Tap tap tap…

She held her breath.

Tap tap tap…

Slowly, she turned her head back toward her computer screen.

Tap tap tap…

Her keyboard was lit up and it was… typing. Like an old player piano, the keys were being depressed without fingers applying the pressure. And whatever was doing that was flying over the keys.

"What the hell…" she said under her breath.

As the goose bumps multiplied on her arms, she dared to lean closer to the monitor.

Tap tap tap…

She gasped and had to grab onto the chair for support as she read the screen.

"Ms. Potts, you're in danger. I'm locking your office door," she read on the screen. This was followed by an electronic beep and the sound of latches being turned.

"J – Ja – Jarvis?" she managed to squeak.

The keyboard jumped to life. "Jarvis's connection to this entire facility has been severed."

Suddenly she could hear footsteps. "Oh, my God…" she whispered.

"Just sit tight. Help is on the way."

"What the hell is happening? Who are you?" she yelled into the air.

Hushed voices outside her office door began to get louder, but still incomprehensible. The whole situation was incomprehensible.

The door handle began to shake. The voices were only mumbling, but she could tell they were angry. They began to pound on the door. Did they have sledgehammers? Who carries sledgehammers she idly wondered.

"Don't worry. They can't get in. Even if they use the sledgehammers."

"Really?" she whispered at the monitor. "Sledgehammers are a thing?"

"Yes."

Feeling oddly at ease with her mystery typist, she tried her original question again. "Who are you?"

No typing.

"How am I supposed to trust you if I don't know who you are?" she reasoned.

"You can take your chances with me or them. It's your choice."

"Fine," she harrumphed and folded her arms across her chest.

After a few seconds of computer silence - not sledgehammer silence - her keyboard began to type again.

"Sorry if that seemed rude."

In face of imminent danger she actually smiled. "It's ok. I'm more than a little off my game right now," she stated with a calmness she didn't feel.

"On the contrary, you're your usual graceful self."

"Thank you, but how –"

Suddenly the lights flickered to life and her cell phone lit up. The pounding stopped and the voices got impossibly more agitated.

Tap tap tap… "How and who are not important. You'll be safe now. Good night, Ms. Potts."

The building was suddenly full of shouting. Clearly she could hear the authoritative voices of Stark security agents, law enforcement, and, was that… "TONY?" she screamed.

"I said MOVE!"

And suddenly the door was gone and she was in the strong metal embrace of Iron Man. He flipped up the faceplate and began kissing her in between his whispered chants of "Oh, Pepper."

"Oh, Tony. How did you know?" she managed to ask him.

"I was already on my way back to surprise you, but over Nevada I got an incoming text message saying you were in danger."

"Who told you?"

"Um, well, that's the thing. See, the message was from a number that shouldn't exist anymore," he said in a faraway voice.

"Tony? What aren't you telling me?"

"That number was Coulson's. When I traced it, it showed it coming from your office."

Slowly, they both turned their heads back to Pepper's monitor. All that stared back at them was Pepper's COMPLETED report.


End file.
